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This is my second piece of Assisi Work. I took a correspondence class in Assisi embroidery through the American Needlepoint Guild. The class was taught by Dolores Andrew, a woman who has written several books on the subject. The materials that she sent to me for the class were extremely thorough. It was a great in-depth study of Assisi Work. Unfortunately, the class is no longer being offered by the Guild.

The chart for the class was based on a piece of 16th century lace. The practice of bordering Assisi Work with blackwork came in fashion post-17th century, but the blackwork border gave me much-needed practice on my double-running stitch.

My hardest decision was the fabric on which I was going to stitch the design. Dolores recommended that I use 16-to 20-count evenweave fabric, but in the pre-17th century period, higher-count fabrics (such as 28- or 32-count) were more commonly used in Assisi embroidery. Being up in Alaska, there are very few places that carry evenweave fabrics for embroidery, so my selection was a bit limited. After looking online for more options, I found that most of the evenweaves were about 28-count or higher, which was readily available at our local Michael’s.

In the end, I decided to err on the side of authenticity, and ultimately chose 28-count Irish linen evenweave fabric for my project. For my threads, I used DMC cotton floss for the dragon design. The blackwork border was completed in a very dark blue Eterna silk floss, which I had ordered from Thread Express a few years back.

Although Dolores recommended that one start with the blackwork border, I was not confident in the quality of my double-running stitches. So, I started with the outline of the dragon (to hopefully hide any mistakes, in case I made any). I outlined the dragon in two strands of blue floss that was the same shade as my primary color. Once I was done outlining the Dragon, I found that I was much more confident in my double-running stitch.

I then worked the rest of the dragon design in Two-sided Italian Cross, which is now one of my more favorite stitches. Although it appeared to work okay with a few sample stitches, I found that two plies of floss did not work well. The fabric was starting to buckle, and it was difficult to work the needle into a shared hole. I had to take out a bunch of stitches and start the background all over, this time using only one ply of floss. In spite of the headache that this was, I was much more pleased with the overall result.

Once done with the dragon, I did the blackwork border. Dolores had included several different border options with the project, but in the end, I decided to do the one that was shown in her sample project. The double-running stitch was now a snap. I concentrated my efforts on making the blackwork 100% reversible.

I really like the dragon, as did Dolores. Actually, she called the piece "exquisite", which made me jump for joy. Literally. And, I think I called just about everyone that I knew, and told them what she had said. To be honest, as much as my dad said he was proud, I don’t really think he cared all that much. Oh well.

There is one thing that I didn’t like about the project. I’m sure that it’s just me being overly-critical of my own work, but I didn’t like the lack of detail caused by using a high-count fabric. Dolores’ sample was worked in 18-count fabric, and I used 28-count fabric. The details on the dragon’s feet are more noticeable on Dolores’ sample than on my design. Also, above the wings, there are several squares that were left blank intentionally. Again, this is more visible in Dolores’ work than in mine. My project has all the elements of the original, but it’s just not as evident.

All in all, my piece turned out well, and I enjoyed taking the class. If I were to do the project again; there are a few things that I could change. First, I could pick a smaller count of fabric (like 18-count or 14-count), thereby making the piece bigger and the detail more prevalent. Conversely, I could keep the 28-count fabric, but instead use a contrasting color in which to outline the dragon, which would probably also make the detail more noticeable. Finally, I could re-chart the feet area to make the detail more evident.